Why Alex Verdugo should play left field over Jasson Dominguez in October
Major League Baseball has become a playoff sport just like the National Hockey League, just like the National Basketball Association.Pennant races are obsolete.
Regular-season powerhouses that habitually fall short in the postseason are increasingly perceived as little more than imposters. And here I am at Yankee Stadium. What? Did I say anything? The job is more difficult now for everyone even though teams don’t have to finish in first place in order to qualify for the World Series.There is a gauntlet of best-of’s, hypothetically starting with three, then five, then a pair of sevens.
The job is more difficult for general managers, for front offices must be able to construct rosters that succeed over both the long and short haul. Still one victory shy of clinching the AL East and thus earning a bye from the opening round best-of-three, Aaron Boone on Thursday faced a bevy of questions about the situation in left field, where the Yankees manager and hierarchy have a good field-no hit option in Alex Verdugo and a good hit-unreliable field option in Jasson Dominguez from which to choose. Boone spent a few minutes analyzing the situation before the final game of the three-game series against the Orioles, in which the Yankees were undermined by baserunning blunders by Juan Soto and Gleyber Torres on Tuesday and then by Dominguez’s shaky defense on Wednesday. Guess what? Baserunning and defense become more important in autumn than the summer.Fundamentally, details matter.
Fundamentally, the Yankees haven’t always been best-in-class in that category. Perhaps coincidentally but probably not, the Yankees have lost four of seven postseason rounds — not including a pair of one-game wild-card knockouts they split — since Boone took over in 2018. I understand Dominguez’s promise.I get the electricity he can bring to the plate.
He is a threat.It is all in front of him.
But at the same time, catchable fly balls have been landing behind him in left fiel...